Making His U.S. Open Debut, Victor Estrella Burgos Is Embraced by Dominicans

Victor Estrella Burgos during his match against the Dutchman Igor Sjisling.Credit
Uli Seit for The New York Times

The United States Open is a lovely tennis tournament, with stirring feats of athleticism and an often companionable crowd. Class and ethnic diversity, however, are not its most notable aspects.

The stadium complex was carved out of the most densely populated and working-class park in Queens, and the United States Tennis Association’s relationship with the Latino neighborhoods that lap almost to the lip of the stadium is not always easy. Corona is the nearest neighborhood, but Amagansett is the more frequent summer ZIP code for the wealthier in attendance.

I parked my car on the park lawn and took a jammed U.S. Open bus that cut down a park walking path. A soccer ball bounced loose from a nearby field, and the driver, to her credit, immediately brought the bus to a stop.

Behind me, an I’m-a-very-important sort in a Martha’s Vineyard cap sighed audibly, twice. Why are we stopping, he demanded loudly.

Which brings me to Victor Estrella Burgos, a coiled piece of counterprogramming from the Dominican Republic. At 34, which is ancient for world-class athletes, he qualified for the tournament for the first time. He climbed from the exurbs of the tennis world — a year ago, he ranked 300th — to 80th, which places him well into the suburbs of genuine competition.

His opening match on Tuesday pitted him against Igor Sijsling, a long, lean and stoic Dutchman. At first, Sijsling appeared to be in command, his serves like F-15s bearing down on an overwhelmed Estrella Burgos.

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Dominican fans cheering for Victor Estrella Burgos. “He’s one of us,” one fan explained.Credit
Uli Seit for The New York Times

Then, in the second set, Estrella Burgos, 5 feet 8 inches (maybe) and wearing radioactive-orange sneakers, went D. R. on Sijsling, which is to describe a variant of going New York on the world. He hurtled about, coming to squeaking stops, grunting, sweating, punching the air in joy or frustration.

The fans responded with rhythmic clapping and loud shouts and groans. Each halt in play brought the chant:

“Vic-tor! Vic-tor!”

“C’mon, Papi!”

A man in the stands stood and spread his arms wide and implored a line judge: “That ball, it was wiiide!”

Midmatch, Estrella Burgos leaned into his fans near the baselines.

“I told them: ‘Please don’t call Sijsling’s ball out all the time. You’re making me confused’,” he said afterward.

As he told my colleague, Ben Rothenberg, a few weeks ago in Washington, “If here we have 10 Dominican people, it’s going to be like 100, for sure.”

New York City being New York City, there were hundreds of Dominicans in attendance. No surprise, they sounded like thousands.

During the match, I sidled up to Victor Beco, a 58-year-old in a white shirt, slacks and sandals, who was watching with his son, Yaser. Beco arrived in New York in 1975, drives a school bus and lives in University Heights, just up the street from his family’s beloved Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. (“You a Mets fan?” Yaser asked me, with the sort of surprise reserved for someone who just acknowledged he has leprosy. “I think I’m more happy than you.”)

U.S. Open

Estrella Burgos came flying across the court, his tongue hanging out, and reached for a long ball. Thwack! He sent a laser beam down the baseline. It was the fourth set, the heat was beating down and Estrella Burgos looked like he had taken a swim in his tennis whites.

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He began as a ball boy at an exclusive tennis club in Santiago. He was a hyperactive kid, and his father asked the manager, who was a friend, just to make sure his son ran a lot. The kid did that, and watched and learned. After the clients had gone to sip their cocktails, he’d hit ball after ball.

One of those who cheered him Tuesday was Paula Sebelen, another New Yorker by way of Santiago.

“Years ago, I played tennis at St. John’s University in Queens, and I was home in Santiago for the break,” she said. “I needed someone to hit with, and they bring me this 11-year-old who was maybe 5 feet tall.”

That was Estrella Burgos.

“No one spent money on this kid,” she said. “But he hit the ball like crazy.”

Estrella Burgos did not make enough money to play tennis exclusively until 2007. He pieced it together, prepping the Puerto Rican Davis Cup team here, playing in Ecuador there.

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At 34, Victor Estrella Burgos became the oldest person to make his debut at the United States Open, and the first Dominican.Credit
Uli Seit for The New York Times

Every Dominican at the match seemed to know Estrella Burgos’s story. Elvis Diaz, a retired truck driver with a thick, silver necklace, attended the Open for the first time yesterday. He cheered as his man toed the baseline like a nervous steer in the final set.

“There’s no support for this sport in the Dominican, it’s just for the upper middle class and rich,” he said. “He comes from poor people who work. He’s one of us.”

This isn’t to nominate the fellow for sainthood. No doubt he can be as difficult and driven as the next world-class athlete. You don’t go from undersized ball boy for the rich swells to undersized player at the U.S. Open because you are noted for your patience.